The nephew of Stanley Ho is now on trial for allegedly managing a prostitution ring at Macau’s Hotel Lisboa. Alan Ho, who served as director at the hotel, was among 102 people arrested in the January 2015 sting, which police officers described as the largest such sweep since the handover in 1999.
Prostitution is not illegal in Macau, but must be conducted privately. “Pimping,” the term used in several news reports, is forbidden and carries a prison term ranging from one to five years. In cases where pimps use violence or coercion, the term ranges from two to eight years. And if prostitution is part of an organized crime network, the punishment could be as much as 10 years behind bars.
According to the Macau News, on January 5, the first day of trial, the court rejected a request by Ho’s lawyer, Jorge Neto Valente, to conduct the trial behind closed doors. Neto Valente, head of the Macau Lawyers Association, had claimed a closed-door trial would protect the sex workers’ identities and avoid salacious interest in the proceedings.
Ho and three of his co-defendants refused to testify on the opening day, but the hotel’s former security chief, Bruce Mak, took the stand and admitted the hotel had a special check-in counter for sex workers, who were known as YSL or “young single ladies,” among staffers. Qiao Yanyan, an admitted former prostitute, also testified, and said her superiors at the hotel “selected” the sex workers, who used rooms on the fifth and sixth floors.
Neto Valente says Ho was unaware that the women checking in were prostitutes.
